The term skycap for workers who help with luggage at an airport was coined by analogy with redcap, a term for porters on trains who wore red caps. Skycap was the winning entry in a contest. Another contest, held in 1923, gave us the word scofflaw, a term for someone who drinks illegally during Prohibition. A Boston philanthropist and staunch anti-alcohol crusader named Delcevare King sponsored the contest run by a local newspaper. Other entries included boozshevik, klinker, wetocrat, slacklaw, and lawjacker. Not to be outdone, a Harvard student magazine ran its own contest, offering $25 for the best slang term “Prohibitionist”: Also-rans included fear-beer and jug buster, but the winner was spigot-bigot. King is buried in Quincy, Massachusetts, where his epitaph reads simply, “He tried to be helpful.” This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
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